News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-01-13
JENNIE;S CHRISTMAS.
Driven to the Penitentiary by Relentless
| Mistress for Petty Offence.
From the New York Herald

Behind prison bars and paralyzedl
And all for taking a worn out baby
blanket from the rag bag and putting on
a scrub skirt
She had no underwear, and was SILVER
ing from cold, and she wrapped the
blanket around her bare shoulders under
her dress because it was flannel, and she
hadn't known the luxury of flannel in so
long that it seemed like little CLEAN
of paradise let down into her bleak life
when she felt the warm woollen folds
about her.
And as for the skirt the mistress of the
house had hung it in the girls bedroom,
intending to wear it over her dress when
she wanted TO scrub or wash, and It had
hung there for weeks.
And the girl had no dress to go on the
street in, and when Sunday came and
her beloved Sabbath school class met in
the grand church half way across the
CITY she took down the old, dingy skirt
and, lacking on 1t a few pieces of drap
CIV she possessed, she put it on under
her cloak and started to Sunday school.
Wrong? Well, yes perhaps 1t was
stealing. But if you had been kicked
and cuffed around the world as Jennie
/
thing of misfortune with never kind
word or bit of teaching in your life,
and had been Just then in Jennie's place,
would you have heroically said with an
amount of principle that would have
| characterized a Luther, ',No, that is my
mistress skirt, and. although she has
| cast it aside as worthless save for the
basest purposes, even in my great need
l will not touch it; and as for this
blanket, which has been actually thrown
to the waste, even though | sh1ver with
cold from night to morning, will not
take it, lest some one reproach me with
ever so slight a fault?'
| No doubt that would have been the
grand and great thing to do, but would
you have done 1t2
Well, the mistress caught her, literal
ly and metaphoricaly caught her, for
she took hold Of the skirt and dragged
the girl into the sitting room, sat down
and grabbed the skirt with both hands,
while she sent in hot haste for detec-
tive.
The girl did not deny her ownership
of the skirt, and when two detectives
arrived she drew it off, pulled out the
threads that held the draperies to it and
handed back the stolen property. The
enraged and abused family then went to
the girls room and in the presence of
the detective Jennie drew out her one
poor little bundle, not even encased in
satchel, and slowly went over piece by
piece her few aprons and handkerchiefs
and stockings, a pile of lerters and
bright cards and photographs, that the
family might claim whatever booty she
had made away with.
But even Mrs. is searching eyes
failed to bring any other booty TO light.
Then, in the heat of her wrath and
righteous Indignation, Mrs. j ac-
companied the ''criminaln to the station
house, and the obliging officers imme-
diately ordered that the girl be searched.
Mrs. j, the lady, half tainted at
the idea of doing so dreadful thing
herself, and finally the rnatron was called
in, who quickly removed the girls
clothing, and lo-the shawl
The evidence was complete, and into
a cell the well caught thief was hurried
and the key quickly and securely turned
in the door
This all happened before noon, and as
Mrs. C, Jennie's teacher was leaving
church a sister in the congregation wh)
lived in the house with Jennie's en-
ployer, rushed up to her and exclaimed:
"Oh! Mrs. C, do you know what
you have done2 You have recommend
ed thief and old criminal to Mrs. il
That girl has run off with nearly every
thing in the house!'
The moments dragged like lead till
Mrs O. stood at Mrs. is door,
Then came the whole dreadful story
The girls guilt and the family's loss and
misfortune. A list of articles stolen
was detailed to Mrs. c.. A pair of
gold trimmed spectacles, pair of kid
gloves, various laces, &c. And Mrs. G
= listens patiently through it all, and
then with a heavy, aching cart wendell
her way to the police station. She
could only see the girl a few moments,
and then she sobbed so convulsively that
a clear statement could not be obtained
from her.
Two days passed, the charge was
formally entered. Tho detectives ad-
vised that everything stolen should be
valued at once so that the amount be
placed at $25, if possible, to make it
grand larceny, and secure a longer SEN
tence. In vain the teacher pleaded that
the charge be Withdrawn. The out
ragged family demanded that justice be
done. The day was set for the trial.
Mrs. G-'s husband was suddenly
stricken with pneumonia, and he lay
lowering between life and death. She
could not leave him, and in despair she
finally sat down at midnight and wrote
to prominent lawyer 10 represent the
case and protect the girl at all hazards.
Misfortune upon misfortune! The
lawyer was absent from his Office that
day and did not get the letter till it was
all over.
Poor Jennie was sentenced to the Pen
i.entiary for two months.
In the meantime the spectacles, gloves |
and laces were all found, but the skirt |
and the baby blanket, valued at $3.50 |
condemned her.
There is much more to tell. Stories |
that contradict one another that Mrs.
j told before witness. Twice she |
declared that she had asked the Judge |
to give the girl a light sentence and |
show her mercy. The Judge and clerk
positively affirm that no such request |
was made Mrs. j asserts that mum
berless other articles have been found in |
Jennie's bag, but two detectives and the |
assembled family failed to find them |
when Jennie spread them out on the |
bed piece by piece before them.
Jennie had one precious relic of dead |
relative, a black lace scarf of beauty and |
value. One day, while wheeling the
baby in the street, she wrapped the
beautiful lace around the baby's neck,
and when she came in her mistress
quietly put the lace away, saying that it
belonged to her sister. But when the
teacher pointedly referred to it she re-
luctantly agreed to give it back.
Meanwhile Jennie has had a stroke of |
paralysis. Sick and unable to work,
when she comes to the goth of Deem |
Der, with the stain of the Penitentiary |
upon her, what is to become of her?
Closing the Farm Year.
y